The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor An innocuous invitation from a buddy changed Jim Galbraith's life. When he was teen growing up in Vancouver, a friend got him involved in a church youth group. 'I heard the Gospel message there, and accepted it,' says Galbraith. Now a few decades later, Galbraith's faith has brought him to Flin Flon as the new pastor of the First Baptist Church. He arrived early in the New Year, making this his third church following stints in Prince Rupert and Port Alberni in B.C. It has been nearly two years since the Flin Flon church had its own minister, but it remains strong with an average Sunday attendance of more than 50 people. 'That was one thing that drew me to this church, is how well involved and committed the laypeople are,' says Galbraith. 'Because, in a sense, they don't need a pastor. They're running the church just fine, but it's something they wanted to do.' Available In describing his pastoral style, Galbraith emphasizes the importance of making himself available to people. 'I don't really like to come into things with a big agenda,' he says. 'I like people to find what they like to do, what their talent is. We use a term called 'spiritual gifting' _ what God gifts us to be able to do. We like to discover those things and get people active in the church.' In his sermons, Galbraith takes a decidedly traditional approach. 'I definitely preach from the Bible. I don't really like going topical, which would be kind of 'flavour of the week' sort of thing,' he says. 'I like to pick maybe a book like Philippians in the New Testament and work through it rather than just pick and choose.' It's a style Galbraith hopes will help grow the church's congregation, though he admits his plan for increasing attendance is not at all 'flashy.' 'You just get people who are at the church excited about being there, and they invite their friends and family and you just kind of grow organically,' he says. An active pastor for the past 22 years, Galbraith was formally ordained by the Canadian Baptists of Western Canada in 2000. Born in Toronto but raised in Vancouver, he had no qualms about relocating himself and his family to a much smaller centre. 'When we knew it was time to look for another church, we looked at the churches in our denomination that were looking for pastors,' he says. 'And I called the folks here and we talked and it just led to us coming.' Galbraith and wife Lori have three teenage sons, Christopher, who is now at university, Matthew, who graduates from high school this year, and Joel.
